Car sub-woofer + home system speakers to computer - help!

Hauksort said:

I don't really know what I'm doing, so I definitely have to study more, wouldn't want the magic smoke to escape!

So just to clear things up, is there no way to get the sub-woofer working, even without the speakers(and using the bridged mode)? I do have other speakers I could use that are better suited for a computer (from a 2.1 or from a 5.1 system), so I don't have to use the same input as the sub-woofer as long as I'd hook up the sub-woofer to the orange input and the speakers to the green(or black).

I guess I'm just experimenting, so it's not getting this to work wouldn't be that bad, I just figured there'd be a way to power the sub using that amplifier, if it doesn't work that's just too bad haha

You could power the sub from that amplifier. The challenge is setting up a complete system, with the small speakers and the sub operating over different frequency ranges.

It's not something I've done. My latest hifi (to use the 1950s term) setup combines a stereo receiver with a powered subwoofer. The receiver has a separate output for the sub. The main external inputs (TV, CD player) are digital. (One optical, one digital co-ax.) Not a lot of mental effort went into putting that together.

jds63 said:

Explain bridging, i am not familiar too much with for this amp
For maximum flexibility, the NAD 214 can operate in bridged mono mode, typically tripling its continuous power rating into 8ohms. This makes the NAD 214 an ideal choice for a sub-woofer amplifier or high power centre channel amplifier in home theater applications. A pair of bridged NAD 214 's becomes a high current, high power stereo power amplifier, while retaining the refinement associated with smaller amplifiers.

I'm no electronics engineer, but:

Bridging is connecting a load (speaker) across the outputs of two amplifiers. (The two amps could be from a stereo amplifier.) One of the amps gives an inverted output. Suppose that amp A made +5V at a given instant; then amp B would be at -5V.

From the point of view of one of the amps, the load impedance is cut in half. That is one reason NAD mentions that their product can tolerate very low load impedances; that's necessary fro bridged mode.

There must be something a little naive about this view, else bridging two amps would give twice the effective output signal, or 4X the power.

You may ask: why not simply buy a bigger amp in the first place? One reason is that it allows adding an additional power amp to the system without discarding the old hardware. It could also be used in a 12V automobile system to avoid needing a DC to DC converter (to make a higher voltage).

I don't think I have a receiver just laying around, but wouldn't the computer work as a receiver? Since when I'm connecting the sub-woofer to the orange port, it is recognized as a sub-woofer/middle speaker or something similar in the Realtek HD sound manager or whatever it's called. It definitely works when plugged in, it's just that it's making the sounds I'd expect would come out from the regular speakers, not the sub-woofer.

I have a few 2.1 systems as mentioned, but doesn't seem like I can power the speakers without the sub-woofer just because of the cable layout. And without another amplifier it doesn't seem like I'll be able to power the other speakers that's pictured in the imgur album.

So I'm not sure, I'd have to get the sub-woofer to work, and I'd have to find a way to power at least two speakers it looks like.

bobkn said:

I'm no electronics engineer, but:

Bridging is connecting a load (speaker) across the outputs of two amplifiers. (The two amps could be from a stereo amplifier.) One of the amps gives an inverted output. Suppose that amp A made +5V at a given instant; then amp B would be at -5V.

From the point of view of one of the amps, the load impedance is cut in half. That is one reason NAD mentions that their product can tolerate very low load impedances; that's necessary fro bridged mode.

There must be something a little naive about this view, else bridging two amps would give twice the effective output signal, or 4X the power.

You may ask: why not simply buy a bigger amp in the first place? One reason is that it allows adding an additional power amp to the system without discarding the old hardware. It could also be used in a 12V automobile system to avoid needing a DC to DC converter (to make a higher voltage).

Thanks for explanation, did good for non electronics engineer. I am pretty good when comes to Home Theater setups, minus the PC. From what i see and think about thread starters use with this stereo just might not sound right or work right as far as i can tell. Now if you can help him get it right, Good luck ! Guess rather get usage out of it, rather then buying speakers for PC this i can understand.

Hauksort said:

I can definitely get the sub-woofer to work, but it's recognized as a middle speaker, not a sub-woofer in the Realtek HD Sound Manager software, so it won't work as a sub-woofer just yet. Any work-around to this issue?
Thank you jds63, and you're definitely right!
Edit; I don't have the option to swap center/ sub-woofer in the Realtek HD Audio Manager, which would most likely solve my problem. Fill speaker and Enable Bass Management is also not there.

Your welcome, all i felt was how can your sound card send the proper low tones through the left/right stereo channels when clearly it has a separate connection on sound card for Subwoofer which is not being used in this case.Also Amp does not have a connection proper for sub.My assumption of this scenario.

Do you think I could only power the speakers instead of the sub-woofer instead?

Hauksort said:

Do you think I could only power the speakers instead of the sub-woofer instead?

Yes, that should work o.k..Some sound card and this is integrated change coded color for each speaker. From what i see from your pic Grey is side speakers, black is rear, yellow looks like sub and green should be front, others are mic and line in.

My integrated which i do not use, using PCI card, orange is my Sub out, as it looks yellow in pic you posted, only color difference i noticed for standard color coded. Yours is 7.1 channel integrated, as it has side channels.

See what other member has to say about it for you first.

For just stereo, use the green jack.

I suppose that it might be possible to use the subwoofer connection and a separate mono amp to drive the sub. (I've never done that. The 2.1 systems that I have use only the green jack, and have their own crossovers.) You'd have to figure out which of the two channels from the orange jack is for the sub.

You might get into some weirdness because the two small speakers would also receive the low frequency stuff, but as long as you get the phasing right, it may be OK. (If the phasing is wrong, the signals will subtract rather than add, and you'll lose a lot of the bass.)